2 weeks Ago
The “delete” button is an absolutely marvelous invention — it’s just too bad the thing doesn’t work pre-emptively. Because I think everyone, no matter their politics, would love to make it all stop. That is, I’m sick of the emails asking me for $5 to stop Trump from stealing the election.
And no, I certainly don’t want a signed Elon Musk “Dark MAGA” hat (also, coincidentally, just $5). I’ve got a pretty rockin’ Rolling Stones Hackney Diamonds tour hat to cover my bald spot, thank you very much. The good news is this election will be over in little more than a week .
.. and two-and-a-half months .
Yeah, unfortunately this shouting — and scamming — won’t stop until after the inauguration. First we'll have people scream fraud, raise questions about why the polls were wrong, file lawsuits. Their conspiracies will require more fundraising.
And there will be conspiracies. Come on — some people think the government can control the weather; they’ll believe anything. Example: Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie braved social media last week to ask that folks stop spreading trolldom rumors about voting machines changing their votes.
Haynie attends Charleston County election security meetings, and he knows a voter has three chances to make sure their ballot is right — ending with a paper ballot in hand. Anyone who turns in a ballot that says “Harris” when they wanted it to say “Trump” is either hopelessly careless ..
. or illiterate. “I understand there are those who will never be convinced by the facts, but I wanted to share these for the benefit of the rest of you,” Haynie wrote on Facebook.
Unfortunately, that covers a lot of people — and we all have to endure the emails, texts and commercials aimed at the gullible. And they, like most of us, are about to be a tad disappointed. Even at the local level.
Sorry, there’s no way to build enough housing here to make it “affordable” ...
unless the government subsidizes it, or the Lowcountry skyline looks like Chicago (a beautiful city, but not our style). That wouldn’t be affordable anyway. Same way congestion doesn’t get fixed by refusing to build roads, and we can’t improve schools by electing people who want to dismantle public education.
That's the thing: We can’t reelect the same people for 20 years and expect different results. No matter how much propaganda comes our way over the next 10 days, only a few things are certain for South Carolina. The next General Assembly will work hard to divert some of our money to pay the tuition bills of middle- and upper-income children already going to private schools.
This will be one of its most pressing fiscal matters. Insurance rates for bar and restaurants will not go down unless drunk driving rates go down. Despite demagoguery about price gouging, this state doesn’t regulate much.
Except women’s bodies. But that’s another story. Speaking of regulation, other than some Lowcountry lawmakers (and presumably, now, a few in the Upstate) the Legislature’s majority won't seriously do anything to bury powerlines or shore up the grid's security.
They will, however, grandstand that South Carolina can't count votes as quickly as a third-world country ...
and never mention that's because they refuse to pass laws that would, in fact, allow for all votes to be counted within hours of the polls closing. Locally, the same issues will continue to dominate: Flooding, traffic, affordability. The next Charleston County Council will put another transportation sales tax referendum on the 2026 ballot if the current one fails.
Because the majority of council members were elected to do just that. Meanwhile, demand for affordable housing will have outer Dorchester and Berkeley counties developing faster than you can say “greentbelt” ..
. or “Centex.” The state could do something about our already overburdened infrastructure, seeing as how it owns most of the roads.
But that would cost money, and lawmakers allowed it to crumble and fall behind in the first place by not adequately funding it for decades. It’s much cheaper to cosplay culture wars. Which is what most of these emails, texts and commercials are about.
Illegal immigration, guns and abortion — that’s all we’re going to hear. They can't really make the price of your groceries go down. So they stir up folks with things that don't cost anything, except for the legal bills that result when they have to defend that tripe in court.
This is what gerrymandering, social media and a slew of uninformed — misinformed — voters has brought us. It's what we will continue to get so long as we are influenced by emails, texts and commercials asking for just $5. There’s only one way to make it stop.
Go vote..
